Let's not forget about Engadget's liveblog [engadget.com] as well as the dozens that are out there. I really don't know why Apple just doesn't stream it live; the media can still do their live commentary on how awesome or boring something is.

from a PR point it makes sense - it makes it had for you to find exact details - makes people look different places.. also gives the perception that it is larger of an even than it is. (if it was so small then a single source could handle the job easy).

And the tragic truth - so far at least it has been a nothing announcement. They've stuck the iPad 2 internals in the iPhone 4 case, and called it the iPhone 4S. Whoopdy doo. Oh and they tweaked the camera a bit...

Yep. The thing is over now, so here is the sum total of the announcement:

1. New camera. Has more megapixels. White balance may no longer suck. (That's the tweak.)2. You can now take pictures using the volume up button. (Really? Not with a camera button? Really: double tap the home button, press the "camera" icon, press the "volume up" button. That's "ease of use," apparently.)3. Remember how Android has a voice activation feature? iPhone is getting that now. Unlike the old "voice command" this one can now be used to search the web and enter text into text fields. Wasn't this available in Android 1? And as an app for iPhone?4. "New" processor (it's the iPad 2's)5. "Better than console game graphics." No, really. Seriously! They said that!6. Remember how the iPhone tracked your location, and everyone got upset about it? The new one uploads the location to iCloud and this is, somehow, a feature. So you can locate your phone through the cloud. (It's in your house! Thanks, GPS!)7. Antenna was redesigned. So you might be able to make calls and browse the web while holding the phone.8. Now supports Sprint.

Yep. The thing is over now, so here is the sum total of the announcement:

1. New camera. Has more megapixels. White balance may no longer suck. (That's the tweak.)2. You can now take pictures using the volume up button. (Really? Not with a camera button? Really: double tap the home button, press the "camera" icon, press the "volume up" button. That's "ease of use," apparently.)3. Remember how Android has a voice activation feature? iPhone is getting that now. Unlike the old "voice command" this one can now be used to search the web and enter text into text fields. Wasn't this available in Android 1? And as an app for iPhone?4. "New" processor (it's the iPad 2's)5. "Better than console game graphics." No, really. Seriously! They said that!6. Remember how the iPhone tracked your location, and everyone got upset about it? The new one uploads the location to iCloud and this is, somehow, a feature. So you can locate your phone through the cloud. (It's in your house! Thanks, GPS!)7. Antenna was redesigned. So you might be able to make calls and browse the web while holding the phone.8. Now supports Sprint.

And that's it. That's everything.

So you're saying that Steve left because he was too ashamed to be part of this announcement, and that whole sickness thing was just a coverup?

Though really I'm not sure what people expected. You know, other than an iPhone 5 instead of 4S. Do you think Apple's marketing department was crapping themselves with all the talk and excitement on the web for iPhone 5, knowing that there would be massive disappointment when they revealed... iPhone 4.1?

To be fair, the Siri stuff is really, really cool. And it's way beyond what Android offers. The rest is just updating it to meet modern phone standards, true, but something that takes those kind of natural language queries and integrates them into the whole system is amazing. Check out the segment where he's having it read a text to him, does a schedule query, and then replies to the text - all via voice. (If you go to the Apple website and watch the video, that starts around 77:30.)

This is a big deal. I've been using a Droid X since it came out and despite it having a dedicated camera button, when you go to take a picture, it takes friggin' forever to fire up. Being able to fire up the camera in 1.1 seconds is HUGE. Just think of all the opportunistic upskirts and nose picks you'll be able to automatically post to your Twitter account!

Now is the time to laugh at all the fanboys that had already sold their iPhone 4s to buy iPhone 5s, but now have to buy new iPhone 4S

I kinda doubt anyone did that.....all they were expected to do today was announce the phones, not actually sell them. Why would anyone sell their phone weeks before the one they want becomes available?

I'm shocked, utterly shocked. Oh, not about anything in the presentation, I'm shocked that Slashdot actually got this story up when the event was happening and didn't link to a recording three days from now.

The other half are the haters that need a few minutes to cook up a rationalization of why each new feature isn't really a big deal. "7x the processing power for a device whose major selling point is the App Store? Pftbt lame."

Yeah the GPU blows everything else right now out of the water. The A5 is a monster, and deriving the kind of battery life Apple manages out of it with a sub 1500 mAh battery is just amazing. A lot of self-proclaimed technies don't really appreciate the design genius of Apple's engineers.

No, the camera is on the back, and the volume controls are on the side. It really takes no effort in particular to use the volume button.

I've been running iOS 5 beta for a while on my iPhone 4 for a while. You'll note that the iOS 5 upgrade doesn't magically upgrade my hardware, so re-using the volume button on the phone is actually pretty nice. And for the sake of consistency, you may as well use it on the new phones, too. And that means no dedicated shutter button that may actually never be used, or accid

A year and a half later, all that they can offer is a slightly better camera, faster CPU, and universal (GSM+CDMA) mobile.:(

Most people including myself were hopefully for the thinner design, larger edge-to-edge 4 inch screen, metal back, NFC, 3D glassless display, 4G wireless data, etc. that were mentioned in the iPhone 5 rumours/hype. What a huge let down. No innovative must have features offer! Definitely not worth an update over the popular iPhone 4.

It also sucks that you still can't play video podcasts in the iPod Nano like you used to 2 generations ago!

In fact this entire iPhone+iPod refresh really is a big disappointment for me. I guess Apple does not think that hardware innovation is important anymore! What a great way to disappoint your fans, and have them look at other platforms that at least have some more frequent hardware improvements.

I guess Apple does not think that hardware innovation is important anymore!

They do - just very iteratively. Why bring out one new product with new features when you can get there via three intermediaries that you can sell on to the "must have" crowd for hundreds of dollars a time.

It is Apple tactic No. 1, and Cook is full square behind it. They haven't become the highest value tech company by being nice! Apple are having their cake and eating it - huge profit margins on products that they can "update" by making tiny changes to it and a significant proportion of their loyal f

Of course, putting in an A5 chip, nice 3D graphics, a much improved camera w/ 1080p video, Bluetooth 4.0, 14Mbps HSDPA, and AirPlay wireless video mirroring is a bit more than "tiny changes".

Sounds like a solid upgrade to an existing platform. Actually, sounds more like they pretty much gutted the interior and just reused the case. None of the specs are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, but many people like their iPhones and this is a nice upgrade for most. The only people who should be whining

Most people including myself were hopefully for the thinner design, larger edge-to-edge 4 inch screen, metal back, NFC, 3D glassless display, 4G wireless data, etc. that were mentioned in the iPhone 5 rumours/hype. What a huge let down. No innovative must have features offer! Definitely not worth an update over the popular iPhone 4.

While all of this is true, the refresh will still sell like mini-hotcakes. There are the people that jump at any new revision Apple puts out, the people that can finally have an iPhone on Sprint (there are still a LOT of people on Sprint) and the folks that actually are interested in the new features it provides. This will probably be like the iPhone 3Gs release in that its announcement was a bit less bombastic as its predecessor, but still enough of a worthy upgrade for many people.

4G wireless? You're right about that one point. Maybe the current chipsets are too power-hungry for Apple's taste.

Even with this... really? Downloads are now available at 2X the speed of the iPhone 4, now up to 14mbps... other than downloading HD video to your phone (not streaming it, downloading it in bulk to watch later), isn't a 14mpbs speed still faster than most of the cel networks can reliably deliver? Its certainly faster than a lot of people's internet access over their DSL/cable modems.

So Apple disappointed us with no iPhone 5 in June. Now 4 months later they disappoint again with a warmed-over iPhone 4S that might be worth getting if you have no iPhone at all, but not get locked into a new upgrade contract otherwise. Meanwhile there are multiple Android LTE choices available. Has Apple lost their magic and now just wants to squeeze out every last dollar as long as the current iPhone continues to sell? Or is Apple showing the inherent weakness of one company against everyone else when it

There was one, and only one mega-fail here. It didn't happen today. It happened when Apple made their announcement of "Let's talk iPhone" and then failed to keep expectations within line. Everybody has now been buzzing about the dual iPhone 4S/iPhone 5 announcement for the past couple of weeks. Without an iPhone 5 announcement to be made today, Apple needed to kill that rumor DEAD. Instead, they've managed to totally underwhelm the world with a new product launch for a fine incremental update for something that would have looked fairly decent if examined in its own light. Mr. Cook, I'm sorry to inform you that you just flunked the oral portion of your CEO marketing exam and that the board is likely soon going to be announcing your imminent departure from the top spot. Nice knowing you.

Is this really any different than Apple's strategy all along? Come out with a phone, and make incremental improvements each year. Every other year (except for 1-3g jump) has been the major refresh mark. If you come out with a majorly new product each year, you stand to alienate your customer base -- the majority of customers will balk at feeling pressure to refresh their devices every year. This puts people on a 2-year track, which also coincides with the term of carrier contracts.

It's pathetic, isn't it.
In the Slashdot of old, there would be a lot of people dissecting the new features, especially Siri and the new camera, comparing those features to competitors (objectively), maybe explaining the prior art or comparative products that exist. There would still be a lot of criticism, but by and large most of it would be of the objective kind. The slashdot of now? A bitter cesspool of trollish negativity.

Welcome to the new internet.In case you have not noticed, "half" the world is on the net which means the number of morons out here quadrupled as well.Try to read the comments section on your favorite news site, you will understand what I mean...

Well, here it can be fun to watch people traffic in stereotypes (and weird oxymoron ones, like mainstream hipsters).

On news sites it's depressing because there is discussion of actual important issues, as opposed to what gadget someone watches their German BDSM porn on (not tat I know about any of that, no sir, not me). On the Right sites it's all "Obama am teh anti-Jesus" and on the Left sites it's all "If your child shows any desired to be a businessman, kill it immediately, for it is evil, and unclean in

Not sure I understand the business reasons fully for not allowing T-Mobile to carry the iPhone 4S. If there was any carrier who really needs this phone they are the ones who need it most; especially in light of the fact that there is no guarantee that the AT&T / T-Mobile merger will occur. Perhaps its just sour apples on my part, since I really was hoping to finally move away from my Blackberry.

But why oh why must there be a slashvertisement for a media event to build hype and excitement? Whatever the product, let's wait until a few facts can be gleaned and the hype-blurb safely ignored.
We might as well just demand equal hype for Dr. Bob's iChiropractic iApp for iOS which will iChange your iLife for the iBetter. It would be as reliable and accurate as the typical media event surrounding the launch of a mass-market consumer product.

Nonsense... this just shows your cluelessness. If you want a stock that does nothing but go up, then I have stock in Unicorn Inc. I'll sell you.

Fact: AAPL has been consistently going up for ages now. They have a great lineup now, and for the foreseeable future. They have a ridiculous amount of cash on hand, and time-and-time again the bitching of/.'rs preaching the "Apple is doomed" mantra has been proven wrong.

So it goes down 3%. BFD! Considering how high my AAPL holdings have gone up since I bought

Actually, I'm not surprised at all, and kind of wish the fanboys who are raging that the new phone doesn't shit rainbows and have a '5' in its name would sell off more of their stock and depress the value even more so that I can afford to buy some AAPL for myself.

Not at all... it just gets boring after a while. Reading the headline "ALL EYES ON APPLE" triggered it.Looks like crowd behavior what's happening there. Trying to find missing identity in following a hype/crowd and feel good for a while.Quite common.

People who care enough to read live commentary on the event already know where to find that. I don't understand why we're getting this non-article telling us exactly nothing, when waiting an hour means you could have actual information to report.

Actually it looks like it's got on spec-parity with the Samsung Galaxy SII, give or take some software and a smaller screen (which might be a good or bad thing according to tastes). Apparently it's still the old thick iPhone 4 case, when all the leading Android phones got releases with a thinner case last Spring. I'm a little disappointed because an iPhone that doesn't clearly beat the competition could mean that the Android manufacturers will slow down their race to better features.

It very well could be the best antenna. What other cell phone can switch to a 2nd antenna when your hand is covering one of them? (Oh, I get it. Just because it CAN must mean one or both antennas are deficient in some way. Right?)

The Onion's story [theonion.com] was an excellent summary of the event in advance I believe.

During a highly anticipated media event held today at the Apple corporation’s world headquarters, CEO Tim Cook announced the new iPhone 4S is good and people should buy it. “It’s a good phone,” said Cook, walking out onto a stage and gesturing at a picture of the device projected on a large screen behind him. "It's got e-mail, the Internet, and you can get apps on it. Everybody should get one. It's good." After standing in place for another four seconds without speaking, Cook walked off stage, at which point the houselights came up and all in attendance were asked to please file out of the auditorium.

The only comments I've seen regarding Siri claim that Android has had it for 2 years now. If they are talking about about voice recognition to dial numbers and play songs, then Apple has had that for years as well. If Android has had conversational, contextual voice recognition that seamlessly integrates all the core apps plus external information sources allowing the user to speak naturally, then a lot of marketing dweebs in several companies should be fired because I've never heard of it.